


The Barrel Rider and the Dragon

by TheFangedGoblin



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Biting, Happy Ending, Human Smaug, Implied Mpreg, M/M, Porn with Feelings, Post-Desolation of Smaug, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Smauglock, depressed!Bilbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 07:05:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6069825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFangedGoblin/pseuds/TheFangedGoblin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Terribly injured after being struck with the black arrow, Smaug resurfaces from the waters of Laketown in a weaker, human-like form. He haunts the forests, lost and in pain until he catches the scent of something familiar. He finds a thief in the Shire, depressed from the loss of his lover and friend and out of place in the peace of the Shire that was once his home. Instead of taking revenge as planned, Smaug begins to feel like perhaps two beings that don't belong anywhere may just belong to one another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The Barrel Rider reeked of despair and grief. 

What was the point of extracting revenge on a being that was punishing himself more than any other being ever could? And all for what? A stinking dwarf? Smaug snorted to himself at the thought, his innate hate for dwarves burning in his chest like the dragon fire he missed so much. 

He had known the Luck Wearer smelled of dwarf when he crept into his lair for the first time. He should have known it was because he was mating with one. He grimaced…disgusting. And to think, Smaug had seen Oakenshield raise a weapon to the little thief who was supposed to be his mate. Vicious, dirty, immoral animals.

Oh, how Smaug hated dwarfs, enough that one could imagine his grief when he pulled himself out of the lake and discovered his new form had changed to be dwarf-sized. Many, many centuries ago, Smaug had been born a Skin-Changer, but once he discovered his dragon form he never returned. He does not remember what his life was like before the dragon and not until the black arrow struck him did he relearn his humanity. He had been stuck inside the dragon for so long that he had forgotten himself entirely, lost in madness and lost in the heat of his own fire. He had been lost in the depths of his treasure bed. And now, defeated, he felt like a lost ship with revenge only half-heartedly burning in his newly cognitive mind. He felt numb, powerless, and full of doubt like the fire inside him was extinguished to leave him cold and aching.

Though even in his humanoid form he hadn’t been this small, at least as far as he could remember. The injury had forced him to change form to survive, and who knew when he would be able to change back? He had thought about lying there and drowning with the bodies littering the loose soiled floor of the lake, but he had pulled his weakened form out of the water as the people of Laketown were fleeing to Dale. He remembered he needed clothes only when the cold started to bother him and grabbed what he could in the chaos. He left as soon as he could before the Battle of the Five Armies began. 

He took to the forest which welcomed him back like an old friend. There he stayed, lingering without purpose. It was only later, after he got a whiff of a familiar scent, that he followed it back to a place called the Shire and learned that his Thief in the Darkness was what they called a Hobbit. 

It wasn’t going to be possible to blend in in the Shire. Even though his height matched, he looked more like an elf than a hobbit and Hobbits noticed if strangers were lingering around. This form had black curls and sharp eyes that sometimes flashed red and were bound to make others feel uncomfortable, or perhaps they just sensed his sinister nature. Smaug liked to think that was it. 

So Smaug stuck to the shadows and watched the one they called Bilbo Baggins. 

The little hobbit was broken and suffering and no one seemed to notice, except Smaug, who should have been enjoying Bilbo’s pain. Instead, it pulled at something in Smaug’s chest. Bilbo did not belong here in the Shire any more than he did himself, not after all he had seen and done and lost and won. Thoughts of revenge seemed to be fading farther and farther away as Smaug kept his watch. Stalking became more and more like guarding until one night he decided he was done slinking in the shadows.

It was that night that the young hobbit came back from the tavern very drunk. He stumbled out to his neglected garden and planted an acorn from his jacket pocket, covered it with dirt, and suddenly started sobbing. What an odd thing to do, Smaug thought to himself. 

The hobbit cried until he fell asleep from the drink. For a while, Smaug watched and waited until finally he stepped out from behind the hobbit hole and picked him up off the ground, up into his arms, and took him through the round door and into his house. The home was empty. Smaug knew it had been raided by his own kind the day that Bilbo returned to the Shire, but it still felt like a home. He laid him on the bed and told himself he could finally extract his revenge once the thief woke. 

The hobbit slept soundly and deeply for hours, his senses dulled by the alcohol. He only began to stir when the sunlight through a circular window stung him. Even before he opened his eyes, Bilbo regretted the amount of ale he drank the night before. What had he been trying to accomplish... what was wrong with him? Something is very, very wrong with me, he thought. Hobbits were not supposed to feel this much heartache and pain and fall asleep on their front lawns.

It did not feel like his lawn. It felt like his bed. It felt like his warm quilt and soft pillow. His eyes snapped open painfully and when he saw the strange, pale stranger in his house, he tumbled right off his mattress with a yelp.

Smaug couldn't help the sinister smile that graced his lips as the hobbit fell out of the bed. "Good morning."

Bilbo stood up as fast as he could and as tall as he could against the strange man in his bedroom. "Who are you?!" he demanded, grabbing a knife from underneath his pillow. He had been sleeping with it for so long. It was a hard habit to break.

Smaug stood and turned to look over Bilbo’s book collection. These were the ones he saved from his fellow thieving kind, he mused. These were special. He breathed in the scent of old paper, thick ink and soft leather. "Oh, we have met before, Thief."

Bilbo feared what the stranger would do to his books. He did not like the way he was looking at them. "No, we have not. My name is Bilbo Baggins and I am a simple hobbit... I do not know you or know why you are here," he insisted with a shaky voice, pointing his knife to him from a safe distance.

Smaug’s nails sharpened as they ghosted over the book spines facing him. "Oh, now you give me your name, Barrel Rider," he sneered. He already knew what he was called by his kin, of course.

Bilbo was visibly thrown off by that and gripping the knife harder. There was something frighteningly familiar about this creature that he already knew was something he had never encountered before. Or had he? "What are you doing in my house?" he demanded again.

"I asked you that once... I came for a little old fashioned revenge," there was no fire in his voice, only exhaustion. 

Ah, now revenge was something Bilbo could understand. Well, he may be hungover and weary, but he still had some fight left. He still had the ring. He would protect it for as long as he lived. "You sound familiar yet I have never laid eyes on you. I would remember it if I had," he mused, standing up straight. His fear was fading into something else.

Smaug looked down at his own hand as if for the first time. "I have not had to use this form for many centuries," he told the hobbit. "I came here with the intention of killing you but you seem to be doing a fine job on your own. Was Oakenshield really worth it, little hobbit?"

Bilbo pursed his lips and fumed. His heart throbbed at the thought of his lover. "I would prefer you do not speak ill of the dead in this house, stranger. How did you get in here without anyone seeing you?"

"I carried you in here." Smaug said with a smirk. "He wasn't your lover towards the end, now was he? He would have killed you for the Arkenstone."

Bilbo could imagine the stranger’s strong arms lifting him off the soft earth and into his house and he felt chills. "How do you-" Bilbo stopped, getting more and more frustrated. He was pretty sure that was the intruder's goal. But how did he know that they had been lovers? How did he know him and his journey? "I told you not to mention him," he added dangerously.

Smaug sat down in an armchair at the corner of the room and stared at Bilbo, completely unconcerned with his little knife. "I'm not going to kill you," he said as if coming to a decision. "I thought it might make me feel better but I doubt it would now."

"Oh?" Bilbo challenged, still ready to fight. "And why is that? Too easy for you? You would be wrong."

Smaug scoffed at that. "You wouldn't have broken into my home if it wasn't for that dwarf… and you seem to be doing a perfectly good job of punishing yourself." Smaug stood up from the chair and even in his small form he was a head taller than the hobbit as he approached him. He plucked the knife out of Bilbo's hands faster than he could stop him and let it fall to the floor. He leaned forward to inhale the scent of him deeply at the hobbit’s neck. "You still smell delicious, by the way."

Bilbo's fingers itched then for the ring. He could disappear out of sight and get away. Yet he could not get to it, not now. He did not even want to think about where he kept it, afraid this stranger could read his mind. "What is your name?" he demanded.

"I have had many names," Smaug said, still nosing the hair along Bilbo’s neck. The hobbit was frozen in place, too proud to back away, too uncertain to fight him, and too curious to stop asking questions. "But you know me as Smaug," he whispered the name into the hobbit’s ear.

That name caused Bilbo to put aside his hesitation, shove the stranger roughly onto his back, grab the knife off of the ground, and straddle his hips to hold the knife against his throat. "You are wrong. Smaug is dead," he hissed angrily.

The shove was unexpected. The wound in Smaug’s chest from the black arrow ached as he fell. He blamed his lack of grace on his newly acquired legs that he hadn't quite gotten used to. "Not dead. Injured and in a form that is a pale imitation of what I was. But still very much alive. At least for now," he smirked. "Are you going to end me, little hobbit? I am not responsible for your lover. You are the one that woke me."

Bilbo snarled angrily at the mention of his Thorin again. "No more fire breathing? No more flying? You are weak and I should kill you!" he shouted down at him.

Smaug growled and shoved the knife away before flipping the hobbit over so he was on top and pinned his smaller hands over his head. "You of all people should know size isn't a determining factor in weakness."

"You are not a mile long reptile any longer! You are the size of a dwarf and just as killable!" Bilbo shouted into Smaug's face.

Smaug squeezed the hobbits wrists hard enough to bruise before letting go of him and standing up to step away from him. Bilbo winced at the pain but it did not break him. He stood up quickly on shaking legs. "You are a coward. You have always have been… sitting on your gold like you owned it. You never owned it," he snarled.

"It was mine! That was my home first! I left the mountain for a few centuries only to come back to find the dwarfs had desecrated it!" Smaug yelled. 

Bilbo shook his head, not knowing whether to believe him. This was not the same giant creature he had encountered in that mountain. "You left it, which means it was empty and became a home for the dwarves! Do you not understand that!? It is very simple logic!" he screamed, clenching his fist despite one of them throbbing painfully.

"They stole it from me, so I stole it back!" Smaug argued, though he didn't know why it was so important for the hobbit to know his side of things. 

Bilbo stomped straight up to the man, trying to stare him down from his shorter height. "You left it for anyone to take. If you wanted dwarves out, you shouldn't have left it!"

Smaug's lip curled into a snarl but he seemed unable to muster any response. Bilbo's expression changed when Smaug did not spit fire back at him. He stared up at him then like he actually was beginning to see that he was a being of different sides and many forms just as everyone is. "You may no longer wish to kill me, but you should," his own words surprised him, like he meant them to sound different than they did.

Smaug didn't know why, but it upset him. It was the same feeling he had when he saw Bilbo on the stairs while Thorin had a sword to him. At the time, he assumed it was because he had wanted to kill the hobbit but now he knew that wasn't it. It was a strange sort of protectiveness over the little being.

"All hearts heal, Barrel Rider, even yours," Smaug told him as gently as he was capable.

"Why aren't you going to kill me, too easy? Or is it that you can't in this puny form?" he challenged.

"I don't want to kill you anymore," Smaug told him simply.

"Well, that's just great. Why are you still here, then, waiting for tea?" Bilbo mocked, but then thought to himself how nice a hot cup of tea sounded.

"I shall go," Smaug told him. "Don't drink yourself to death over the dwarf. It would be a waste."

Bilbo's glare softened. "Where will you go?" he asked.

Smaug hadn't thought that far ahead. "I'm not sure."

Bilbo stepped forward to stop Smaug from reaching the door. "How do you know I'm not going to kill you? Or at the very least put you in jail?" he protested.

Smaug shrugged at that. "You can try and kill me but you won't succeed. And I don't think anyone would even believe you if you told people I was a dragon."

"Perhaps not here. But there are others who would believe me. Wizards and dwarves," Bilbo pointed out, moving even closer towards the door to prevent Smaug from leaving through it.

Dwarfs were not a cause of worry but a wizard could be a problem. He growled at the thought. "Punishing me will not bring Oakenshield back!"

"Sit down. At the table. Now," Bilbo demanded suddenly.

Smaug's lip curled at the tone but he found himself sitting down though he didn't know why he was listening to the hobbit. Once Smaug was seated, Bilbo began to ready the tea, rummaging through the cupboards in search for what he wanted while the kettle steamed. "I assume you like it smoldering hot," he barked at him.

Smaug frowned as he watched the hobbit get cups out for tea. "I don't know. I've never had it."

"You are a rather pathetic monster now, aren't you?" Bilbo chastised, because never having had a good cup of morning tea was unheard of.

"I'm not a monster," Smaug said defensively. 

"Really? What are you then?" Bilbo questioned, sitting the steaming tea in front of him and sitting at the table across from the dragon.

Smaug took the cup and let it warm his hands. "I don't know," he admitted. "I am not that different than you."

Bilbo snorted. "I can list many reasons why we are different," he said as he gingerly sipped his tea. "You are the inventor of dragon sickness."

Smaug glared at Bilbo. "And you willingly spread your legs for dwarfs."

Bilbo stared Smaug right in his eyes and smirked. "Dwarves? Plural? Are you suggesting that I had a go with every one of them?"

"I don't know what you get up to," Smaug said with a huff, though there was a bit of blush along his high cheekbones to his ears as he drank his tea.

Bilbo crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I didn't. It was one dwarf, only one," he insisted.

"From what I have learned of hobbits, they don't usually associate with others outside their own kind," Smaug remarked.

"Well, apparently some hobbits do," Bilbo contradicted. "And you can't help who you fall in love with."

Smaug was quiet at that because he knew that to be true from some very distant, unreachable memory. "I'm sorry you lost your love," he said sincerely. "I did not like Oakenshield but I am sorry you had to experience that pain."

Bilbo snorted again, because he knew Smaug was not being sincere. "It was partially your fault. You were part of the chain of events."

Smaug forced himself not to get angry. "I still understand the pain of losing something you love and I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"Who have you lost?" Bilbo asked, seriously curious to know. Smaug was old and has had many forms. Who loved him, other than his gold and his solitude and his darkness?

"I am very old and have lost many loved ones," Smaug told him vaguely. He pushed his empty cup away. "I should not linger much longer."

Bilbo was watching Smaug with a newly kindled interest. "Other dragons?" he asked, ignoring his other comment. He wanted to know more.

"I'm not like other dragons... obviously." Smaug said, indicating his form. "My people were shapeshifters. The last I heard, they were exterminated."

"You are not the only shapeshifter," Bilbo shrugged as he took another noisy sip of his tea.

Smaug looked sharply at Bilbo. His nails on the tips of his fingers sharpened instinctively and Bilbo eyed them curiously. "You have seen another in your travels?" he questioned quickly.

Bilbo shrugged. "Perhaps," he suggested.

"Care to elaborate?" Smaug questioned with as much patience as he could.

When Bilbo realized just how interested Smaug was, he changed his game. "Oh, don't worry about it, it's not that interesting," he brushed off mockingly.

Smaug glared at the hobbit. "You have seen a shape shifter... you could take me to them."

Bilbo laughed at that. It was improper, but he didn't care anymore about being rude. "I'm not going anywhere with you," he scoffed.

"Fine.... then I will just stay here until you change your mind," Smaug told him as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Bilbo raised one eyebrow. "You could be here a long time, then."

"I am immortal. I have a lot of patience," Smaug said threateningly.

Bilbo sighed dramatically. "What would you accomplish by meeting one of a similar kind?"

"Shapeshifters function better in a pack," Smaug told him, though it was clear that he hadn’t seen a member of his species in so long that he did not know that to be true. 

"This shapeshifter doesn't,” Bilbo remembered. “What's wrong? Now that you don't have your stolen gold to keep you company you wish to belong with others?"

"I want to be with others just like any other creature," Smaug said.

"You cannot just assume something will be your friend just because they are one of your kind. I can assure you of that," Bilbo told him, because he knew that was true all too well. He found very little to relate to with his own kind anymore. Here he was, having morning tea with a dragon.

Smaug frowned. "I don't know where else to go," he admitted.

"You only have yourself to blame for that. You destroyed Laketown. You killed many people... families," Bilbo told him without a bit of sympathy.

"You provoked me! I was in my dragon form and could not think of anything else besides revenge,” Smaug insisted.

"Neither could the dwarves," Bilbo muttered into his tea.

"Dwarfs are like that in their single-mindedness," Smaug insulted. "I am better when I am not in my dragon form otherwise you would be dead by now."

"So in your human-like form you are more sympathetic?" Bilbo teased.

"It seems that way."

"I don't believe it has anything to do with the form you are in. I think your heart is cold no matter what."

"I don't care about what you think of me," Smaug said with a glare.

"I think a small part of you does, especially if you are claiming to be sympathetic now," Bilbo pointed out.

Smaug moved his glare to the smooth handmade surface of the table between them. "I have no place to go."

Bilbo looked into Smaug's eyes and tried to see the dragon there. "I'm not so sure I want you to go out there into the world, not knowing what trouble you will get yourself into," he told him.

"So you won't show me to my kin and you won't let me leave. What then shall I do?" Smaug asked sarcastically.

"I told you, you don't want anything to do with the other shape shifter. He is not a very social animal," Bilbo reminded him, wanting him to know it was for their own good.

Smaug frowned and continued staring. "I will stay here with you then," he said coming to a decision.

"And what do you propose you do to earn your keep?" Bilbo tilted his head like he wasn't truly serious about Smaug staying.

Smaug looked perplexed at the thought. "I... I don't know how to do anything."

"I will teach you. Put you to good use. Or I won't, and we will end up killing each other," Bilbo said with an indifferent shrug.

"You would really let me stay, after everything?" Smaug asked doubtfully.

"I told you, I don't want you to leave and cause another war!"

Smaug couldn’t help but smirk at that. At least there was one being that still thought he was dangerous. "All right then. I am tired. Where will I sleep?"

Bilbo gestured towards the opposite direction. "There is a guest bedroom," he told him, wondering why he was allowing this enemy into his home. He was putting the Shire in danger. Perhaps his mind was gone. Perhaps he had finally succumbed to insanity. But he was also putting himself in danger, a thought he found actually comforting.

"Show me," Smaug demanded, standing up and clearing his throat.

Bilbo narrowed his eyes at the dragon's rudeness. "Show yourself," he insisted.


	2. Chapter 2

The next few days and nights in the hobbit hole were dreadfully uneventful. Smaug stuck to the guest room and tried to stay out of Bilbo's way, yet the presence of danger lurking in dark corners never slipped his mind. What surprised him; however, was how much it didn’t unsettle him to know of the dragon. Smaug was like an old ghost who had returned to share in his despair. Bilbo soon realized how harmless and lost the beast really was.

On the fifth night, Bilbo stumbled home drunk with stained clothes that reeked of ale. He barely made it through his front door and almost lost balance when he kicked off his shoes, heavy with mud. They hit the wall with a loud thud that echoed through the silent room around him. He turned around to find Smaug seated comfortably in his living room armchair, illuminated by soft candlelight. Bilbo narrowed his eyes, unsure if he were real or not. 

"You're still here?" he asked the possibly imaginary figure of an old enemy in a slurred voice. He thought for a moment that he saw Smaug’s irises redden like blood before dissolving back into icy blue. He blinked, wondering if there was something more than just alcohol in the ale.

Smaug closed the book he had been reading, creating a soft explosion of dust that made him look all the more supernatural. "Still trying to drink your pain away?" he asked judgmentally, sizing up the hobbit. 

Bilbo frowned. "I am not in pain. On the contrary, I can't feel a thing," he swayed on his feet and spoke in a fake, happy tone.  
"Because you are drunk," Smaug sneered.

"I lost a lover," Bilbo snapped at him angrily, surprising himself. 

Smaug paused respectfully before he spoke again. "So? You plan on drinking away his memory every chance you get?"

"Yes," Bilbo said, swallowing a lump in his throat hard.

Smaug suddenly threw his book down and stood up to tower over Bilbo, who jumped and nearly fell onto the floor. "Then you are not the same hobbit that tried to outsmart a dragon. You have changed and not for the better."

Instead of shrinking under the intimidation, Bilbo leaned forward and stood on his toes once he was sure he had the balance to do so. "You don't know anything about me!" he shouted, though he knew that was far from true. Clearly, Smaug was the only being who knew him and understood him in the entire Shire and perhaps the entire world.

"I know the lover you mourn did not love you. If he had, he would have not sent you into those mines,” Smaug argued, taking another step closer.

"He did not send me anywhere. I came and went as I pleased," Bilbo insisted, stepping even closer until their noses were in danger of touching. Smaug’s body was warm against the chill settling in the walls of the house.

"If you were mine, I would never put you in any danger," Smaug snarled. 

Bilbo suddenly couldn't catch his breath. "You were the danger!” This time, Bilbo knew he was not imagining it when his eyes flashed into a bright red. It was all he could remember before Smaug grabbed his face and kissed him hard.

Bilbo was shocked, but did not pull away when he felt the magnetic pull between them that he did not question. His fingers grabbed onto the cloth of Smaug’s shirt, at first to pull him closer, but then to shove him away as hard as he could until the dragon fell backwards. He landed not on the floor, but onto the nearest couch with a gentle bounce. Bilbo stared down at him with cheeks reddened and breath hurried, his lips parted slightly. 

Smaug looked up at Bilbo in confusion and licked his lips to savor the taste. "I won't apologize for that," he said stubbornly, automatically thinking that was what Bilbo wanted.

The hobbit continued to stare unblinking. His lips were wet from Smaug's kiss and he felt his mind slipping away again. Without saying anything, he threw himself down onto his companion, landing his lips back onto his in a deeper kiss that involved tongue.

Smaug was surprised to find his lap suddenly filled with hobbit, but he wasted no time trying to decide what was right and what was wrong and kissed him back just as passionately. Bilbo straddled his hips while his fingers already worked to untie Smaug's trousers. His hands were clumsy in their drunken fumbling and Smaug felt himself growing hard very quickly under the uncoordinated brushes of his fingers over his clothed cock. 

He did not like not being in control. Smaug suddenly flipped them over so he was on top of Bilbo, the hobbit’s soft curls haloed around his head. The hobbit was slightly winded from the sudden change in position, and for a moment, Smaug just gazed down at him. Eventually, Bilbo squirmed under his stare and Smaug retaliated with a sudden bite down onto his neck. 

"Be still," he demanded as his nails morphed into talons that he used to carefully rip through Bilbo’s shirt.

Not afraid of his claws, Bilbo arched against Smaug and spread his legs wantonly around his slim waist. He pushed at Smaug's hands to tear his own trousers open, frustrated with their restraints. Smaug’s sharp talons tore away Bilbo’s trousers as well to leave him naked underneath him.

"You are beautiful," he told him.

Bilbo growled to avoid blushing, even when he felt his whole body redden anyway, and pushed Smaug as hard as he could onto his back to take back the control he felt he had lost long ago.

Smaug allowed it to happen, his own restless hands resting on Bilbo’s naked hips. "What do you want?" he whispered.

Bilbo glared down at Smaug. "I'm trying not to ask myself questions."

"Then why don't you show me how well you ride, Barrel Rider?" Smaug mocked.

Bilbo snarled at his companion and blamed the alcohol for his sudden raw need to prove something to him and to himself, and to give into whatever crazed behavior he was succumbing to. He fussed with Smaug's trousers until they finally unlaced and he reached inside of them to drag out his hardening cock. Without breaking eye contact, Bilbo slid to his knees on the floor between Smaug’s legs and slid his cock past his lips into his mouth.

Smaug let his head roll back and groaned loudly. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt a wet hot mouth around him. He tangled his fingers in Bilbo’s hair, his talons dulled back to sharp nails that were gentle on his scalp. Bilbo moaned around Smaug's large cock and gagged slightly when the head of his erection slid against the back of his throat. He pulled back to suck and bite softly at the tip, listening to the intakes of breath from the predator above him getting sharper and faster.

"Come back up here," Smaug suddenly demanded in a husky voice.

Bilbo looked up at Smaug with a lazy expression, eyes wet from the effort it took to not gag. He let his cock slide from his mouth and it sprung back upright. Bilbo did not hesitate and practically jumped back into Smaug's lap.

Smaug took Bilbo's cock in his wide hand and stroked it slowly. "You are beautiful like this," he told him again.

Bilbo bucked into his hand, gyrating his hips shamelessly. His body flushed at the compliment. "Stop saying that," he growled.

"I will stop saying it when it isn't true, my little one," Smaug purred while his other hand curved around Bilbo’s hip.

Bilbo was panting hard and dripping with need when he slid his hand down to position Smaug's cock over his unprepared entrance. "I need you to fuck me," he demanded into a messy kiss.

"No," Smaug told him firmly with a hand on his ass to stop him. His hand sped up its pace on Bilbo’s cock. "I will bring you pleasure like this."

Bilbo was first shocked, then frustrated at Smaug's rejection. At least, that is what he took it as. He snarled and grabbed fistfuls of his dark hair and leaned his forehead hard against his. "Why won't you fuck me?" he demanded through clenched teeth.

"Because you are not ready for that," Smaug told him as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "I won't be inside of you just so you can pretend it is someone else."

Bilbo's expression softened, intoxication making him unable to hide it. Smaug was not like anyone else. He was not capable of filling the void he may always feel for his lost lover, yet Bilbo realized that wasn't what made his hand feel so good on his cock. He whimpered and slid his small hand down to Smaug's erection to stroke him, frustrated that there could not be more, but accepting the reason. "I don't want you to be anyone else," he whispered harshly into his ear.

Smaug groaned. "Liar," he accused as his free hand reached around Bilbo to tease his entrance.

Bilbo growled against Smaug's reddened lips, tried to push back against his finger, and was angry at the accusation. "I am not a liar," he forced himself to say.

Smaug responded only by lifting Bilbo up as if he weighed nothing and walking them both to Bilbo's bedroom. The hobbit gasped and clung to Smaug when the room spun and he realized Smaug was carrying him off before they were done. 

"What are you doing? Where are we going?" he demanded. He ached inside with emptiness.

"Bedroom....I want you underneath me when you come undone," Smaug explained casually and laid Bilbo carefully down on the bed. Bilbo grabbed Smaug by the collar of his open shirt and forced him down into a kiss, not wanting this to be romantic. 

Smaug spread the hobbit's knees apart to lie between them and begin thrusting harshly until the bed shook.

Perfect. It was perfect. One of Bilbo's hands was thrown behind him to brace his palm against the headboard, holding against Smaug's thrusts of his cock against his. His eyes rolled back in his head with explosions of white hot pleasure. Smaug growled when his thrusts increased and he bit down hard on Bilbo's neck again when he felt himself about to come.

The rougher Smaug was, the more it pushed Bilbo over the edge. He arched into him when the pain of the bite penetrated him deeply, so deeply it almost felt like the shapeshifter were inside of him, not just rutting groin against groin like an animal. A whimper of submission was his only way of warning Smaug of his sudden, shuddering orgasm. 

Bilbo felt the sticky warmth flood over his belly, not knowing if it was his or Smaug's or a collection of both, and not caring. He shuddered again and closed his eyes against the deep feeling of satisfaction that was incomparable to anything else he had ever felt. 

Smaug kissed down Bilbo's body until his tongue reached his stomach where he licked him clean. Bilbo did not dare open his eyes and tried not to wiggle underneath Smaug. He draped his arm over his face.

"Now, now, don't be shy." Smaug’s voice, chastising him, was smooth velvet.

Bilbo tried to close his legs when Smaug continued down to his spent cock, but they were still spread around his body. His cock twitched with oversensitivity that threatened to break him. "St- st- too much," he managed to choke out.

Smaug held his legs apart even more and moved his attention down further until his tongue flicked over Bilbo's entrance.

"Ah!" Bilbo shouted, and his body immediately tightened up, feeling his tongue where he last expected it to be.

Smaug's deep chuckle filled the room. "Has anyone ever tasted you here?" he asked knowingly with another flick of tongue.

"No, of course not," Bilbo panted, and if he were not drunk, he knew his cock would already be hard again. "Please..." he pleaded, squirming in his grasp, not knowing what he was begging for or against.

"Roll over onto your belly," Smaug demanded.

Bilbo hesitated breathlessly, terrified of obeying him. He was expecting to get off and pass out... Thorin had never been much for foreplay. He had been an intense but selfish lover and he had never played with Bilbo. Giving Smaug a frightened look, he slowly moved over onto his stomach.

"Good boy," Smaug whispered into Bilbo's ear. The praise was enough to make Bilbo shudder silently, but he cried out when he felt Smaug's tongue firmer against his entrance and again, he clenched down. His sensitive cock, only just relaxing after his orgasm, was stirring back to life with a dull ache. He tried to pull away from Smaug. 

Smaug's hands gripped the hobbit's hips. "I will bring you to pleasure again tonight," he promised him. When the muscle was looser he pushed his tongue as far as he could inside him.

Bilbo no longer had the willpower to try and push away. When his wet tongue loosened him, his sore cock jolted awake and he needed more. Wantonly, he spread his legs further apart around Smaug and lifted his ass to present it to him instead of trying to squirm away. "I want your cock," he panted, hoping he wouldn't have to beg again.

"No," Smaug told him firmly, "you will come on my tongue."

Bilbo bit his own arm to stifle a growl and felt his hips moving against his tongue, causing friction from the mattress against his erection. "I... I can't..." he breathed, though he wasn't even sure what he was saying.

"You can and you will," Smaug’s calm voice guided him. He lifted Bilbo's hips so he couldn't rub against the mattress and pushed his tongue back inside of him. Bilbo cried out, feeling it enter him deep and slick until finally he collapse into orgasm again, almost sobbing from the impact of it that hit him like a wave. 

Smaug pulled back and smirked against Bilbo’s skin. He helped him to lie down on his side and snuggled up behind him, pulling the quilt over them both.

Bilbo was still panting hard, feeling delightfully messy and dirty and thoroughly fucked. He could feel Smaug's body, putting off more heat than any normal person should, and turned in his arms to face him. It was his turn now, he assumed. His exhausted hand slid down between them to grasp for his cock and found it soft.

Smaug raised Bilbo’s hand to kiss his knuckles. "I came again when you made those adorable noises," he admitted.

Still unable to form words, Bilbo furrowed his brows in confusion. He did not make any adorable noises, but he was too tired to argue. Tentatively, he brushed his lips against his lover’s, sliding his tongue into his mouth tentatively as if he still expected his reptile tongue to be waiting there to prey on him. He could taste himself in the kiss and it made him feel good.

Smaug pulled away to kiss his forehead. "Sleep, before you pass out."

Bilbo shifted onto his back and pulled the covers even closer around him, and still breathing hard, he closed his eyes. He felt a soft nuzzle on his neck and Smaug inhaling the scent there. He fell deeply into sleep only a minute later, relaxed and snuggled close to the warm body next to him.


	3. Chapter 3

Bilbo woke slowly the next morning to stretch, yawn, and bask in the warmth of his still slumbering lover against his side. He turned his head to face him and frowned when it appeared that Smaug was resting on a look of distress that the hobbit wished he could soothe away with a kiss. Well, he could do one better. With his stomach rumbling urgently, Bilbo gently slipped out of the dragon’s arms, slid Smaug's shirt over his naked body, and padded barefoot to the kitchen to begin making breakfast.

Smaug woke shortly thereafter to an empty bed. He suppressed a growl at not having his lover within arm’s reach and grabbed his trousers to take off to hunt down his elusive hobbit while expecting the worst. Perhaps Bilbo had left the hobbit hole. Perhaps he was on his way right now to the wizard or the dwarves to have him killed. In this weak body, he would be no match against an army of angry oafs or one ambitious wizard. Maybe it was what he deserved, after all. Maybe he was foolish in thinking he could find a place for himself somewhere in this world.

The dragon stormed out of the bedroom and was hit unexpectedly with the sound and smell of bacon crisping in a pan. Bilbo turned around, the shirt barely covering his nudity. He greeted his lover with a wide grin, a smudge of baking batter across his cheek. "Good morning, darling. I'm cooking us breakfast. There's bacon, and eggs, and pancakes..."

Smaug froze. He had been so ready for a fight. He took a deep breath, calming the ghost of fire inside of him, and walked up behind the hobbit to hesitantly place a hand on his waist. Testing him. "You made me breakfast?"

Bilbo leaned forward to plant a heavy kiss on his lover’s lips like he had been waiting to do it all morning. "I made us breakfast," he corrected. "And second and third breakfast."

He didn’t understand why hobbits needed to eat so much, but Smaug found it endearing nonetheless. "I thought you would be angry," he admitted quietly.

Bilbo's smile faded. "Did you do all that to make me angry?"

Samug shook his head quickly. "No, I just assumed you would be angry after you sobered."

Bilbo pursed his lips. "I could have stopped you," he told him, their bodies close. He would like to believe it were true. 

"Yes," Smaug agreed. He decided to change his tone and leaned forward to bury his nose in the hobbit’s soft, blonde curls. There were no dwarves and no wizards. It was just him and a little hobbit that was cooking him breakfast and smiling at him in a way that made him feel different than he could ever remember feeling before. "You smell like me," he exhaled happily and nuzzled the hobbit’s pointed ear playfully.

Bilbo smirked. "More like I reek of you," he corrected with a warm blush.

"I like it. You should smell like this always."

"I won't allow such a thing," Bilbo insisted playfully, leaning his whole body into Smaug. "After breakfast we are taking a bath."

"Hmmm... as long as I can make you smell like me again afterward," Smaug purred.

"I don't think I could possibly survive any more," Bilbo teased, but there was some truth to it. He had never had a lover as intense as Smaug. He didn't know if he could keep up with him. He felt like he could break, just under his heavy stare.

"I'll be gentle," Smaug said with a smirk.

Bilbo giggled, pressing his lips against his. He didn’t know if he wanted Smaug to try and be gentle or just throw him down onto the floor and have his way with him, dirty and rough and fast. "Breakfast first," he insisted as he pulled away and added bossily, "go sit down."

Smaug stole another kiss and sat down at the table. Bilbo happily turned around, but froze when there was a hard knock on the door. He swung around to stare at Smaug before tip-toeing quickly over to the door to look out the peep hole.

"Go hide," he suddenly demanded of Smaug, and just like that, their peaceful, lazy morning faded away into something else. Smaug would have protested if Bilbo hadn’t have been so serious and stood to walk to the guest room in no immediate hurry.

"No, no," Bilbo hissed, following Smaug and taking his arm. He directed him to the bath and herded him to hide behind the curtain. "Stay here," he demanded.

Smaug growled and actually snapped his teeth at Bilbo in retaliation for the manhandling, yet the hobbit couldn't have been less intimidated. Bilbo glared at his lover but then he leaned forward to kiss his snarl away, momentarily stunning the beast. "I will make it up to you," he promised just before he ran out of the room and flung himself towards the door.

"I'm coming!" Bilbo called out to the visitor while he tripped over himself putting on his trousers. He smoothed over his clothes and sighed before opening the door, but not enough for whoever it was to push through.

"Balin," he greeted. It was like seeing an old ghost from the past, one he thought he would never meet again outside the pages of his book. "What are you doing here? I mean, I am thrilled to see you!"

"I'm sorry to drop in unannounced like this, my dear boy. May I come in? I need to speak to you," the dwarf said in a tone that told Bilbo it would not be good news. He felt himself panic a little. Did he know about Smaug? Did he know about the ring? There were so many secrets in the pockets of Bilbo’s life.

Bilbo hesitated only long enough to think the more he hesitated the more suspicious Balin would be... so he swallowed his nerve and held the door open. "Forgive me, of course you can. My home is your home."

"Thank you," the dwarf said. Weary from his journey, Balin sat down heavily in an armchair. He was about to speak again before he saw the immense food display on the table and raised an eyebrow. "Did I interrupt something?"

Bilbo glanced at the table. "No... I was just... hungry. What is the matter?" he tried to change the subject.

Balin looked again at the food and back at Bilbo, suddenly remembering the urgency of his visit. "Yes. Well… I think you should take a seat for this conversation," he told him gently.

Bilbo looked at him strangely. "Why?" he asked even as he lowered himself onto a stool across from his friend.

Balin took a deep breath like he hated being the one to give Bilbo the news. "This will come as a surprise to you, my dear friend, but Thorin survived the battle. We did not tell you because we were not sure if he would wake but he did and he is healing."

Bilbo said nothing. After a long moment, he blinked. His lips tightened. "That's impossible," he said quickly, and when he stood up to busy himself with pouring some tea, his hands trembled.

"He was in a deep sleep for many weeks, but he woke up... He's alive, Bilbo. And he's been asking for you since he woke."

A subtle twitch of his fingers was the only indication of Bilbo's distress. It was a while before he spoke again, looking down into the warm brown depths of the tea in his hands like he could escape inside of it. "You didn't think to tell me? You didn't think I was strong enough?" he asked. He knew he was. He was so much stronger than anyone thought he was. His voice was steady and yet he was ready to combust. He didn’t know how to feel, whether it was anger or hurt or betrayal… or sheer happiness that Thorin survived. Instead, he felt only shock and denial.

"You had already been through so much, lad," Balin said regretfully. "We didn't want you to go through losing him twice if he didn’t wake."

Bilbo was trembling. He clenched and unclenched his jaw, his eyes blinking away any threat of tears. He was holding onto himself the best way he knew how. "I was not the only one who lost him," he said through clenched teeth, unable to say his name. "We all lost him. You should have told me."

"I should have...but he is better now and he asked me to come and fetch you."

Bilbo's eyes reddened and his back was so stiff it hurt. "I watched him die."

"I am sorry for the pain you went through…"

"It can't... it can't be true!" he shouted hysterically, all politeness aside.

Balin pulled out an envelope he had tucked away safely in his pocket. "This is for you," he said. It was addressed to Bilbo in Thorin's handwriting. Bilbo shook his head and leaned away from the envelope like it was poisonous.

"I know this is a shock," Balin sighed, placing the envelope gingerly down on the table. "I'm going to give you some time. I'll be staying at the Inn in Bree whenever you are ready to talk."

Bilbo continued to shake his head until all he could do was sink onto the ground and bury his face in his knees, grabbing at his own hair. Balin stood to walk to Bilbo's side but stopped when he thought he heard a deep, threatening rumble under his feet. “That noise…” he trailed off.

Bilbo stood up, tears staining his face. He felt like he could drown in them. "What?" he sniffed, trying to act like he hadn't heard anything. "It was... it was just my stomach growling. Please, I just need to be alone for a while." Balin hesitated but nodded respectfully and left with the promise to come by later for Bilbo's decision. 

Smaug was at Bilbo’s side as soon as the old dwarf was gone. "What happened? Why are you upset?" he demanded. Bilbo was holding his face in his hands, his knees to his chest, unable to face Smaug and not trusting his own voice to speak. Not knowing how to make it stop, Smaug pulled him into a hug. "It's all right," he tried, running his hands through his hobbit’s curls soothingly.

Bilbo relaxed into Smaug’s arms. He didn’t remove his hands from his face, not trusting his ability to keep from crying. Suddenly, anger filled the voids where there was sadness. It was easier to be angry than to be sad. He pulled his face from his hands and looked up at Smaug. "They didn't tell me. They didn't tell me he was still alive," he gritted his teeth.

Smaug tensed but didn't let go of Bilbo’s small frame. He understood now. He hadn’t been able to hear what the conversation had been, but he knew now. "This should be good news for you," he said gently with no real emotion in his tone. 

Bilbo, who was never a violent person, wiggled out of Smaug's hold. In a sudden outrage, he grabbed the mug of tea and slammed it onto the ground. It smashed into pieces and he felt his hand bleed.

"Stop, you are being foolish!" Smaug shouted. He immediately stood to take Bilbo’s hand to inspect the damage, though the hobbit did not seem to notice. Bilbo had already retreated into himself, staring off into space with his lips parted and wet eyes distant.

Smaug leaned forward to lick the blood from his palm just to shock Bilbo out if whatever trance he was in. It worked. The hobbit startled but calmed when he saw Smaug with him. 

"Thorin is alive," he said numbly.

"It changes nothing," Smaug answered, unconcerned as he licked between Bilbo’s fingers. They tasted salty from tears and blood. He did not believe his own words.

"He will come looking for me," Bilbo said, idly watching Smaug lick his finger clean of blood with new tears in his eyes.

"Then you will have to choose. But not now."

"You don't understand. I said goodbye to him. I mourned his death. I did everything but bury him." Thorin was, in every literal sense of the phrase, dead to him.

"Then the decision should be simple." Another broad lick over the wound.

"Stop saying that there is a decision to be made!" Bilbo suddenly shouted, because he could not handle the thought.

"I don’t know how to help you," Smaug admitted with a huff.

Bilbo moved away from Smaug and grabbed as much food off the breakfast table as he could. "Just leave me be," he sniffed, and with food falling out of his arms, he walked to his bedroom and shut himself tightly inside of it.

Smaug let him go, for now.

***

That evening, Bilbo still hadn't resurfaced. He spent the entire day feeling sorry for himself, missing Thorin and hating him at the same time for reasons unknown. It had taken him so long to accept his death, and just when he was beginning to think he could be happy again, everything changed. So he stayed in bed, just trying to process his emotions and feeling Smaug’s impatient energy lurking just outside the door.

Finally, Smaug lost his patience and burst into Bilbo's bedroom.

Bilbo was sitting on a window seat, knees close to his chest, gazing out into a world in which he felt he did not belong in anymore. When Smaug barged in, he actually felt relieved but did not show it. "What is it?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"You are mine," Smaug told him as if it was the only truth he had ever known. He stood illuminated by the light through the doorway and appeared taller than he was with his broad chest breathing steadily. Bilbo felt himself slowly coming alive again. 

The hobbit stood and gazed at Smaug like he was hypnotized by the fire burning in his eyes. He walked up to him in the dim bedroom as the sun was swallowed by the Earth and stood on his toes to stand tall to him. They were so close, yet were not touching. "Prove it to me," he demanded in a heated whisper.

Smaug’s expression softened and he reached out to cup Bilbo’s face gently. "I want to, but I don't want you to run off to him as soon as I do."

Bilbo glanced from one red eye to another, still leaning in but not touching. Gone were the calm oceans of icy blue. "You don’t think that if I wanted to run off to him that I would be there by now?" he challenged.

"I think you are unpredictable." 

Bilbo was beginning to think this was a rejection. No one had ever called him that before... in fact, no one had ever called any hobbit anywhere unpredictable, least of all the famed dragon who stole a mountain of gold from the dwarves. He was beginning to think he was doomed to spend the rest of the night alone before Smaug leaned forward to claim his lips with his own. 

Bilbo kissed him back and leaned into his lover’s solid body eagerly. "I will always love Thorin, but I don't want anyone but you," he whispered honestly when he broke the kiss to breathe.

"Then that will have to be good enough."

Bilbo was unable to take his eyes off of him. "What do you want me to say?" he asked, genuinely curious. "Just come to bed with me, my dragon."

"I don’t want you to say anything," Smaug said as he pushed Bilbo onto the bed and crawled in after him.

"Not even to tell you how much I love this body?" Bilbo asked seductively while his hands clumsily slid down Smaug’s muscular chest. Despite only being a bit larger than a hobbit, Smaug’s body was lean and toned and burned feverishly hot. He looked nothing like anything else Bilbo had ever seen. His hair jet black and eyes bright red, he was magical in his beauty. “How magnificent you are?” He stroked his ego like he wanted to stroke his cock.

Smaug nipped at Bilbo’s soft neck. "This body is weak. I could protect you better as a dragon."

"I don't need protecting in the Shire," Bilbo argued, because the idea was ridiculous. "And you can't fuck me as a dragon..."

Smaug unbuttoned Bilbo’s shirt and laid kisses along the soft, exposed skin. "I suppose not, but I could lick you until you came."

Bilbo violently shivered and tried not to let it show how aroused he was from the thought. "Stop that," he protested. "You cannot be a dragon here." He feared for what being a dragon would do to Smaug. Would it take away his sweet humanity for a more reptilian hostility?

Smaug grinned. He pulled off Bilbo’s trousers and stroked his growing erection gently. "I would lick your hole until you screamed yourself hoarse. Then I would push my tongue so deep in you…you would come so hard you would pass out, but I wouldn't stop," he continued in a deep, rumbling voice. "I'd keep fucking you with my tongue until you came around again."

Bilbo gasped and tried not to thrust up into his hand. He bit his lip but it did not hold back the drawn out moan that escaped him. "Stop," he begged again, though it was not convincing. His hand slid between them to push down Smaug’s trousers to immediately begin stroking him. He kissed him hard to shut him up, not knowing what else he might say and thinking he might come if he kept going.

Smaug chuckled into the kiss and pushed Bilbo’s hands away to pin them to the bed. "I would have you anywhere and in any form," he added as he ground their hips together.

Bilbo panted hard and felt his cock twitch and leak at the tip from the excitement of being manhandled. Smaug was strong and dangerous and beautiful and he needed him. "Right now, I want you inside me," he demanded through a heated whisper.

"On your stomach," Smaug ordered, helping his lover to turn around. A rush of lust swept over Bilbo then, making him dizzy. He turned over onto his stomach and immediately lifted his rump, presenting it obscenely and impatiently. "Good boy," Smaug mumbled as he massaged Bilbo's backside and spread his cheeks to lick a long, slow stripe where he wanted to be most.

"Ah!" Bilbo cried out, his entrance clenching tight when he felt that hot wet tongue over it. His knees felt weak and they shook under him. "Not fair... I want this," he reached behind him to grasp Smaug's erection.

"I want to prepare you for that. Do you have something to ease the way?"

Bilbo pressed his backside further against Smaug. "Bedside drawer," he groaned.

Smaug grabbed the bottle of oil and quickly slicked his fingers. Bilbo moaned and bit down on his own arm to keep from embarrassing himself or coming too fast when Smaug's fingers seemed to stretch him to capacity. Smaug pulled his digits away when he felt the hobbit loosen up. "I'm going to breed you and make you mine," he promised as he lined his cock against him and wasted no time with pushing in.

Bilbo barely had time to process what he had said... he wanted to breed him... that couldn't possibly mean what it sounded like... before he felt like he was suddenly being split in two. He had never taken anyone as large as Smaug and it seemed his body resisted right away. Pain blinded him and he pressed his sweating forehead into the bed sheets. He reached behind him to grab Smaug by his hand which had grown sharp talons. "Wait!" he gasped, his voice tiny.

Smaug growled but forced his hips to still. He kissed and licked at Bilbo's neck to calm him.

Bilbo knew Smaug was only choosing to be careful with him. He rewarded him by sitting up on his knees until his back was to his lover's chest and he slowly rocked back against him, willing his body to open up and for the pain to dissolve into pleasure. "You're huge inside of me."

Smaug clenched his jaw and grunted. "We will go slowly."

Bilbo felt guilty that he could not take Smaug easier. He felt like maybe he wasn't enough. He tried not to let those insecurities show through. "Just at first," he promised, still rolling his hips gently, feeling his body open up and adjust to him slowly.

"You're perfect," Smaug whispered against his ear, and he let the hobbit set the pace, for now. Bilbo's brows narrowed and he shook his head when words were not possible. As soon as Smaug felt Bilbo’s body relax, he pushed him down until he was settled on his belly with Smaug’s cock still firmly inside him. "Just relax," he urged, and pulled back to thrust back into him hard.

The thought of Smaug no longer being able to wait, no longer able to be patient, and taking what he wanted turned Bilbo on more than anything else had in his life and he felt his body opening up to the cock moving inside of him. He let out a long moan that made him blush with embarrassment and slammed his ass back on Smaug's cock.  
Smaug chuckled. "That's not relaxing," he chastised, but pulled back to slam back into him again. "I'm going to make you come just from my cock. Then when you are blissed out from pleasure I’m going to keep pounding into you until you don't know whether to tell me to stop or keep going."  
Bilbo was at a loss of words. He felt like the point at which he would come just from being stretched deep by his cock was not too far away and he gripped the bedsheets so tight his knuckles whitened. "You can't… you can’t stop me from touching myself," he panted hard.

"Yes I can." Smaug pinned Bilbo's hands to the bed. Bilbo opened his mouth and whined pathetically at that, pushing back against Smaug when the pain fully dissolved into perfect pleasure. 

"Please, my dragon," he begged his lover sweetly, "fuck me harder..."

Finally, Smaug gave in and gave him what he wanted. Bilbo pushed back against Smaug with every thrust. He could not see his lover but could feel his eyes on him, hot like fire, over his naked skin. His toes curled and he bit down on his arm to silence his cries.

Smaug nipped at Bilbo’s shoulder. Had his teeth sharpened into fangs? His voice was chillingly calm when he said, "I want to hear you."

Bilbo pulled back from his arm and there was an obvious mark of his own teeth. Right away, he moaned out loud and slammed particularly hard back onto his cock. "I can't... I can't be quiet," he panted.

"Good. I want you howling." Smaug’s voice finally sounded unsteady with his breathing faltered, and he bit down on a spot between Bilbo’s shoulder and neck hard enough to draw blood. 

There was no longer any doubt of his sharpened fangs. Bilbo screamed, feeling Smaug's teeth sink into his flesh and body impale him at the same time and he knew he wouldn't last. Pain exploded into white hot pleasure and he felt his orgasm rushing up on him like he could not control it. "Smaug..." he panted for air, "I'm... I'm so close..." he said desperately, not knowing if he was warning him to slow down or telling him to fuck it out of him.

Smaug just roughened his pace, growling against Bilbo’s flesh. Bilbo felt the two rows of teeth sharp and sinking in further like they were going to tear into his flesh even more when finally he was roughly pushed over the edge. Smaug’s cock was hitting that part of him that was making him black out with pleasure, and he could barely hear himself gasping, "Right there, right there!" before he clenched down on his length and his world exploded with pleasure and he came.

Smaug didn't stop his brutal pace. Bilbo trembled until he felt like he was going to break and it was so much that it was almost painful. "Please, please come inside me, please," he sobbed, struggling against Smaug's teeth and his hands pinning him down. "Fuck!" he screamed.

Smaug released his hold and ran his tongue roughly over the sore bite, but he didn't stop pounding into him. He paused only long enough to lift Bilbo’s ass higher. "I'm not done with your ass yet."

Bilbo's eyes rolled back in his head and he was reduced to soft, high pitched squeaks and whimpers until he suddenly felt a rush come over him and he came again, weakly this time, his cock spitting out onto the sheets. Smaug grinned and paused only long enough to pull out of his lover and flip him onto his back. Facing him now, he brought Bilbo’s shaking legs over his own shoulders and pushed back in to continue his punishing pace. 

"I'm going to pound any thoughts of that dwarf right out of you."

Bilbo grabbed onto Smaug when his hands were free and his fingers turned to dull claws of their own to rake down his skin. "I... I can't..." he cried, and tried to wiggle away with desperation to avoid any more pleasure to his over sensitized body.

"Come on…give me one more," Smaug coaxed, fucking him into the mattress.

"I... I..." Bilbo rambled, feeling like he was about to fall when his eyes rolled back again and his entire body shook violently with a third orgasm. He collapsed limply, on the brink of losing consciousness.

Smaug let go when he felt Bilbo come again. He thrust in twice more, the third with a hot burst of his seed inside of him. His knot started to swell right away, ensuring his come stayed inside his mate.

"Oh gods!" Bilbo screamed when he felt Smaug expand in him, and when he wiggled, he could not break free. Smaug was... stuck in him. "What..." he could barely get the words out.

Smaug laid little kisses on Bilbo’s face. "Just relax."

Bilbo had never experienced anything like it. It frightened him and overwhelmed him and he whimpered and instinctually tried to break free. Pain from almost tearing stopped him immediately and he began to hyperventilate instead.

"Don't panic," Smaug winced. "I suppose this isn't normal for hobbits, then?"

Bilbo stilled completely only when he realized there was no pulling away and he wrapped his arms around his lover's neck. He shook his head and felt dizzy. "It's…it's too much. Smaug, it's too much..." he whispered against his lips.

"It's all right," Smaug tried to reassure him. "How does it feel?"

Bilbo suddenly arched up into Smaug, wrapped his legs even tighter around his hips, and rutted uncontrollably as he clung to him. He came a fourth time with a silent scream that had his cock twitching but dry of come. He collapsed back underneath him, his legs falling slack, his eyes closed while drifting in and out of consciousness.

Smaug’s first reaction was to panic, but when it seemed that Bilbo had just fallen unconscious from the feel of his knot, he relaxed. Several minutes later, he was able to pull out and lay beside his mate.

***

Bilbo woke halfway and felt the emptiness inside of him. He turned towards Smaug and wrapped his arms around him, still too overwhelmed for words.

"Did I break you little hobbit?" Smaug asked sleepily. He had been dozing lightly when he felt Bilbo stir.

"There are no words for what you did to me, dragon," Bilbo answered just as sleepily. He ached pleasantly and knew he would be walking gingerly for days.

"I plan on doing that to you as often as I can. You will just have to get used to it. You are my mate now."

Bilbo was too blissed out to really think straight. He trailed his fingers down his lover's chest. "Your mate," he repeated sleepily. "But please don't make me come four times again, I cannot bear it."

Smaug smirked. "But you liked it."

Bilbo held Smaug tighter and could not deny that. His eyes closed again. "Go to sleep. In the morning we'll take a bath and I'll make breakfast. Or maybe I'll make breakfast before a bath," he rambled, falling asleep to the sound of his own voice.

"Hmmm," Smaug made a noise of agreement and scooted closer into Bilbo’s arms.

"Please don't ever break my heart," Bilbo whispered.

"I would rather rip out my own heart," Smaug promised.


	4. Chapter 4

Bilbo woke that morning and slowly opened his eyes to watch Smaug sleep. It seemed that his lover never rested peacefully and he wanted to kiss his frown away. Bilbo shifted slowly in his arms and his body ached with soreness. His ass still felt stretched from that thing Smaug's cock did inside of him to knot them together. He could smell their sex in the bed sheets. Inhaling deeply, he reached out to trace the lines of Smaug's lips, wanting to will his sharp features to relax. 

He wondered if this form is what gave Smaug the humanity that he saw in him now but did not see in the mountain. He wondered if it would all be lost if he were to shift back into a dragon. Would he kill him then? How dangerous was he?

Smaug stirred under the touch and opened his eyes slowly to smiled when he saw the hobbit. "Good morning, little burglar." His voice was a deep rumble, rough with sleep.

Bilbo smiled back sleepily. “I'm not a burglar."

"Yes you are."

Bilbo rolled his eyes and sat up. "I'm very sore. I'm going to draw us a bath," he announced.

"I'll do it," Smaug said quickly, pushing Bilbo back down onto the bed. "You just rest."

Bilbo was going to protest, because he can draw his own bath, thank you, but staying in bed just a bit longer was admittedly much better. He made a noise of contentment and laid back down.

Smaug came back a few minutes later and picked the sleeping hobbit up to bring him over to the steamy bath. Bilbo clung to him tightly and groaned. "You don't have to carry me. I can walk," he insisted, but made no effort to move out of Smaug's arms.

"I like carrying you," Smaug admitted as he lowered him into the bath before climbing in behind him. Bilbo winced when his sore backside was emerged in the warm water but then relaxed with a slow sigh. He leaned back on Smaug's chest and closed his eyes.

"I should have been gentler with our first time," Smaug said softly, feeling guilty now that Bilbo was in pain.

"Shut your mouth," Bilbo said bossily, and leaned further back against his solid chest. He grabbed a sponge and lathered it with soap. "I enjoy being sore from you."

"Good," Smaug told him simply, and that was the end of that.

Bilbo turned around to face Smaug and kissed him on his lips chastely. He lathered the sponge over his arms and chest. "What other manner of creatures can you shift into?" he asked quietly.

"Dragon form has always come very naturally. I have never tried anything else," Smaug admitted.

"Have you ever been in this body before?" Bilbo asked as he cleaned him.

"Yes...well it was similar...not this short." In fact, he was born into this form, though he did not remember that time now. It had been so long ago and the dragon sickness that took him for so many years erased so much of his past from his mind. He could remember being this human-like creature, but taller, and he could remember the first time he transformed.

Bilbo smiled. "Did you purposefully design this body shorter for me?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure why I regressed to this but I am glad for it now," Smaug smirked as he nibbled Bilbo's neck. "This bite make will need to be looked at." He pulled back to inspect the wound.

Bilbo's fingers came up to touch the bite tenderly. "I will put some herbs on it and it will heal fine," he brushed it off.

"It will scar." Smaug sounded smug at the thought of it.

"Are you planning on scarring me more?" Bilbo asked timidly.

"Not unless you ask me too," Smaug purred. "This mark is special. It tells others you have a mate."

"You talk like we're two little house mice raising babies together," Bilbo teased.

Smaug nipped at Bilbo's ear in retaliation. "What would you call us then?"

Bilbo smiled. "I like it," he admitted, nuzzling his cheek. "Thorin never called us anything," he added suddenly.

Smaug tensed at the name on his lover's lips but forced himself to relax. "He will come for you eventually."

"I know," Bilbo said seriously. "You must promise not to do anything rash."

"I won't do anything I think you would disapprove of," Smaug promised him half-heartedly. "Unless you get hurt."

Bilbo nodded, because that was reasonable and he did not want to talk about Thorin any longer. "Are you bored here?" he asked with a change of subject.

"I wouldn't say that I was bored. The Shire seems to bring me contentment," Smaug said honestly. It felt like the rest of the world did not exist here in this small, strange society, and Smaug liked that. Everything was very simple here. Everything was very... safe. Yet he knew there would be a time when he was ready to return. "I wouldn't mind traveling and seeing the world I had forgotten about while I was asleep in the mountain."

"You had the same dragon sickness Thorin had," Bilbo said, almost just to himself, and traced the lines of Smaug's beautiful face.

"I was a dragon. What was Oakenshield’s excuse?" Smaug couldn't help but rub it in. "I had no one and he had you and he still choose the gold. I would never do that."

Bilbo shifted uncomfortably. "We stopped being lovers after the sickness. Except for a few times... But he was not himself those times. He did not have anything then, either."

Smaug disagreed but did not argue. The conversation brought something else to his mind. Something he had been meaning to bring up. "Where is the ring you carried? Do you still have it?"

Bilbo suddenly went rigid. He untangled his arms from where they had been wrapped around Smaug’s neck, and suddenly, he was a different person. "Why?" he snapped.

"You can't keep it. It's dark magic," Smaug told him without fear.

Bilbo's eyes shifted dark and angry and he stood up in the bath and away from Smaug, almost slipping clumsily and catching himself at the last minute as he did. "You are lying to me! You just want me because you want the ring, don't you?!" 

"I don't want your silly ring," Smaug rolled his eyes, confused at Bilbo’s outburst but not surprised by it. The ring had unspeakable power. It was too much power for one little hobbit. He stood up from the tub, dripping water around them, because he wasn't going to let Bilbo end this conversation himself.

Bilbo was thrown off when Smaug stood. He was taller than him and made him feel like he was no longer in charge. He looked away from Smaug under his anxiety. "I think you're lying," he made himself say.

Smaug scoffed and wrapped Bilbo in a towel before doing the same to himself. "I know the smell, taste, and feel of dark magic. And your little trinket is full of it. You cannot keep it."

Bilbo glared angrily at Smaug, holding the towel tightly around him. The ring. He suddenly needed to touch it, to hold it, to feel its cold energy against his fingers inside of his pocket.

"I think you should talk to your wizard friend about it," Smaug told him honestly.

"It didn't take you very long to bring up my ring, did it? Is that why you came here in the first place?" Bilbo shouted again, because he was no longer himself. My precious. Where was it? Ah, yes… in the clothes he had discarded…

Smaug reached out to grab Bilbo by the throat to pull him close. "I do not want the ring!" he roared.

Something about Smaug's hand around his throat seemed to snap Bilbo out of whatever daze he was in. He reached for Smaug and steadied himself, the towel falling into the tub. Smaug growled and suddenly bent Bilbo over the side of the tub. "I'm going to fuck this magic out of you," he decided.

Bilbo suddenly needed that more than anything. Deep down, he wanted to be rid of the ring. He could feel it weaving around his throat to strangle him slowly. And yet he could not part with it. He grabbed onto the sink and pushed back against Smaug's erection. "Do it, then," he panted hard. Smaug suddenly pushed into his tight heat and stilled when Bilbo’s body tensed around him.

Bilbo gripped the tub hard and gasped when he felt Smaug impale him. He was too sore for it, and he pulled away from Smaug, turned around, and shoved him a bit hard. "You need to prepare me, you beast," he snarled, though it was clear he still wanted it and wanted it now.

Smaug kissed him and pulled him out of the tub and onto the floor. He grabbed some oil from the cabinet. "Lay back, then. Spread your legs," he demanded.

Bilbo’s legs slowly obeyed him. He blushed with how it made him feel as he impatiently watched Smaug take the oil. Smaug kissed the inner flesh of his thigh, toned from his journeys, as he pushed his oiled fingers into his lover. "So beautiful," he mumbled as he prepared him. Bilbo threw his head back and relaxed, drawing deep breaths and playing with Smaug's hair. "You are such a good boy. You take my fingers so well."

Bilbo gasped when Smaug's finger brushed over a tear inside of him but moaned with abandon when he felt the tips of his fingers against his prostate. It wasn’t long before Smaug replaced his fingers with his cock. This time, he pushed in carefully as Bilbo’s eyes fluttered into the back of his head. "You will get rid of that cursed ring," Smaug said again.

He still felt just as huge as he did last night and Bilbo gripped the rug underneath him with claw-like fingers and breathed through the pain. "The ring is mine," he growled.

"No, you are mine," Smaug corrected, "and you can't have the ring."

Bilbo panted hard and rolled his hips on Smaug's cock, desperate for the pain to dissolve into pleasure. "I won't give it to you."

"You will." Smaug thrust into him.

Bilbo threw his head back and cried out while Smaug fucked him. He grabbed onto his lover’s flexing arm to stop from bouncing too hard and hitting his head on something. They hadn't made love in this position before, with Bilbo on his back and Smaug above him. "I'll... I'll bury it," he panted hard. "But I won't give it to you."

Smaug growled, suddenly pulled out of his lover, and flipped him onto his belly. Bilbo was actually hurt when Smaug shoved him back around, like he could no longer look at him. Like he was disappointed in him. Bilbo tensed and suddenly it hurt again. "Do you not want to see my face?"

Smaug smacked him hard on the ass. Bilbo yelped and growled in frustration. "You are not giving me what I want."

“I am giving you exactly what you want," Bilbo spoke through clenched teeth, thrusting back against Smaug's cock to prove it. God, he felt so good inside of him.

"I want you to give me that ring so I can destroy it."

Bilbo bore his teeth and slammed back against Smaug, fucking himself on his cock from underneath him. "Or what? You won't let me come?"

"No. I will use your body, fill it with my seed and keep you from enjoying it," Smaug threatened.

"You cannot...cannot keep me from enjoying it," Bilbo panted, because he was enjoying it now.

Smaug growled and reached under Bilbo to squeeze his cock hard. Bilbo cried out and clenched around him tightly. It was too much. "Please, Smaug," he pleaded sweetly with his lover.

"No." Smaug slowed his thrusts just to drive Bilbo crazy.

Bilbo tried to lean his back against Smaug's chest and whimpered, "When you knot me I will come no matter what."

"Maybe I'll pull out and shower you with my come," Smaug threatened, his own breathing unstable. 

Bilbo whimpered and bit his lip so hard he almost drew blood. "I... I don't want you to have it. I don't want it to corrupt you... I can't lose you," he confessed, and he was almost sobbing now. "I will get rid of it, but I cannot give it to you..."

Smaug let go of Bilbo's cock and thrust into him again. "Come for me," he commanded, his voice much softer this time.

Bilbo sobbed when he felt Smaug release his grip and he still fought back the wave of orgasm. He leaned back against his lover until his sweating back aligned with his chest. "I want to watch you this time," he said softly through his ragged panting.

Smaug stopped and pulled out of Bilbo to place him onto his back. He crawled in between his spread legs. "Like this?"

The hobbit bit his lip and smiled at getting his way. He nodded. "Yes, now get back inside," he demanded breathlessly.

Smaug kissed him again while pushing back in slowly. Bilbo threw his head back and panted hard. "Make me come," he asked breathlessly, and Smaug pulled out and slammed back inside him roughly.

Bilbo screamed and grabbed Smaug, his hand tangling in his messy, black hair and kissing him hard to prevent from screaming again as his orgasm approached. Smaug's own orgasm hit him hard and his knot swelled fast. 

Smaug was already so big inside of him that when he began to swell, Bilbo couldn't help but feel that familiar rush of panic through him as he tried to wiggle away from his lover. He hyperventilated and pushed at his lover, but every time he did, the knot swelled larger until he felt like he was going to be split in half. Finally, his body betrayed him and he came hard, closing his eyes and seeing the stars of the night sky as he came undone.

Smaug kept his lover still without much effort. "Why do you try to get away from me when you know it's impossible?"

Bilbo panted hard, so hard he could not speak at first. "Because… it is overwhelming. It feels like you are ripping me apart when you... when you do that."

"It keeps my seed inside you longer," Samug told him calmly as he kissed along his chest.

"It... it feels good, but is too much at the same time," Bilbo said quietly, still just trying to catch his breath. "Why are you trying to keep your come in me?"

"Hmmmm, why do you think?" Smaug asked as he sucked another spot on Bilbo's neck.

"Because you like the thought of your hobbit being stuffed full of your come," Bilbo gasped when he felt his lips over the slowly healing wound on his neck.

"That is one reason."

Bilbo ran his fingertips up his lover's back and tried to breathe through the feeling of his knot still stretching him. "What is the other reason?" he whispered.

"To breed you, of course," Smaug told him.

Bilbo stared up at Smaug with confusion. "You cannot breed with me, darling. I am a hobbit. A male hobbit." That wasn't what he had meant, was it?

Smaug frowned at that. "Why would that matter?"

Bilbo shook his head. "I... I cannot have children. I have the wrong parts. And... and why would you be trying to get me pregnant anyway? We have not even discussed children..." he didn't know what disturbed him more - the fact that Smaug honestly thought Bilbo could have children or the fact that he was trying to get him pregnant.

"Isn't that the point in mating?" Smaug asked him.

Bilbo could not be mad at Smaug for his animal's mind. He nuzzled his lips with his and finally, he felt his cock release him and he sighed with relief and ached painfully. "The point of having sex is to make each other feel good," he told him.

"Hmm, that's true too."

Bilbo smiled, not wanting to admit he liked the idea of his lover trying to knock him up even though he knew it was impossible. And yet, he also thought dragons were impossible. He thought Smaug being alive, showing up on his door and sweeping him off his feet was impossible. He pushed gently at his lover's chest. "You're not stuck in me anymore, you can pull out, you know."

"I like being inside you."

Bilbo smiled and nuzzled Smaug affectionately. "You cannot stay there forever."

"I disagree. It's a wonderful place to be," Smaug said with a smirk.

Bilbo wiggled underneath him. "I'm sore," he complained. "And hungry." Smaug sighed and pulled out of him gently.

Bilbo winced with pain and closed his legs, feeling his lover's come leak out of him. He leaned up and kissed his grumpy lover hard as a reward. "Let's have breakfast, my love," he told him. When Smaug hesitated, he reached out to grab his hand. "Come on. I'll do it naked with your seed leaking out of me."

***

A week later, Bilbo walked outside of his hobbit hole to watch his lover sitting in the garden, using his pipe to smoke rings into the air. He stood and leaned against the door and smiled, just enjoying watching his lover play with the smoke. He could not believe he was here and he was his. He thought of the acorn planted right beside him.

"I have to go away for a few nights," he tried to tell him gently after a few content minutes of silence shared.

Smaug looked up at that. He had been enjoying his time in Hobbiton, getting to know the people in the community where his lover lived. They called him Sam and many had taken to calling him Sam the Wise due to his endless knowledge that he enjoyed sharing. Surprisingly, Smaug had a lot of charisma when he wanted to, and many hobbit children would see him walking along the road and follow him, demanding to hear a story. People talked, of course, and disapproved of Bilbo's bachelor life and the presence of his strange friend. Something was strange about that person, they would say, and make up stories. And yet hobbits had been disapproving of Bilbo since he was a child, and he could not bring himself to care too much about it.

"Where are you going?" he asked curiously.

Bilbo swallowed. He hated lying, especially to the only one left in this world who understood him. "I must visit my accountant," he tried really hard not to falter when he said it.

"Accountant? Are you having monetary issues?" Smaug asked.

"No. That is why I have an accountant," Bilbo explained, though he despised himself for it. He tried not to let it show.

"All right," Smaug said simply. "You will just be a few days?"

"Yes," Bilbo told him, though being apart from Smaug, especially with what he really had planned, made him anxious. "You are very calm about this."

Smaug knew Bilbo was lying, but thought that perhaps he had a good reason to. Maye it was so he could meet up with his wizard friend and get rid of the ring. "You act as if I am holding you prisoner."

Bilbo shifted awkwardly on his feet. "It's just... that we've never been apart," he said. "And I know you like to believe you own me."

"I do own you, and that's how I know you will come back to me," Smaug teased, He pulled the hobbit down into his lap as he sat his pipe aside.

Bilbo looked around hurriedly to make sure no one saw them together and relaxed when he saw they were indeed alone. "Of course I will come back to you. You live in my house," he said innocently. "How will I know you will stay out of trouble?'

"What kind of trouble could I possible get into here?”

"All sorts, I know you," Bilbo narrowed his eyes and said stubbornly. "Don't start about that. You destroyed many lives."

Smaug ran his hand up and down Bilbo's back soothingly. He swallowed hard and looked away, and for a split second, the hobbit could almost believe he felt guilty. "You are all the treasure I need."

"Yes, but you have gone through great lengths to defend your treasure in the past," Bilbo pointed out, though he trusted his dragon more than he even knew.

"And I would again if I needed to," Smaug answered stubbornly, getting tired of his lover’s lecturing.

Bilbo sighed and leaned into him. "I will miss you terribly," he confessed, giving up on arguing.

"I will miss you as well. Don't be gone too long or I will come looking for you," Smaug said in a warning tone that suggested he would not be happy if he had to do that.

Bilbo moved to straddle Smaug and pressed his groin to his. "Promise me you will not get yourself into trouble," he demanded again, because he hadn't gotten that promise yet.

Smaug smirked and gripped his hips. "I'll try and be good," he said sarcastically.

"That isn't what I asked and you know it," Bilbo insisted prudishly, arching into Smaug.

"I won't cause problems for you while you are gone. I promise," Smaug sighed.

Bilbo grinned like he had just won a prize. "Thank you, darling."

"When are you leaving?"

"Tonight, if I want to get a head-start," Bilbo shrugged, threading his fingers through Smaug's shyly and looked around again at the quiet countryside that surrounded them. "We shouldn't embrace out here, it's not proper." Anyone could walk by and see them, and then what would they say?

"I'm sure they know you are mine," Smaug said, unconcerned. He reached up to gently ghost a finger over a bruise on Bilbo's neck he had put there.

Bilbo blushed and looked away. "Yes, but they don't have to see it for themselves," he tried to hide a smile.

"I bet they want to see," Smaug continued to tease.

"They don't, Smaug. They're hobbits," Bilbo insisted as he squirmed out of his hold. He felt terrible for lying and he did not want to be near his lover.

Smaug allowed Bilbo to squirm away. "Is something wrong?" he couldn't help but ask, knowing that there was.

"No. I just don't want people to watch when I throw myself at you for goodbye sex," Bilbo said plainly from a few feet away.

"Maybe I'm not in the mood," Smaug teased.

Bilbo smiled and shrugged. "I guess that's too bad for you, then," he pretended not to care and not at all fooled by his lover's mocking. "I'll just make lunch instead."

Smaug's eyes narrowed as he watched the hobbit walk through the rounded door and back into the house, leaving it open. He gave his lover a minute before he followed. He snuck up behind him and wrapping his arms around his waist to nuzzled his neck. Bilbo paused in packing his things and leaned back into his lover. He turned around in his arms and stood on his toes to kiss him hard, wrapping one arm around his shoulders while his other hand slid down to cup his groin. Smaug moaned and gripped Bilbo's ass.

Bilbo broke the kiss and looked up at Smaug as he sank to his knees in front of him and untied his trousers, all while not taking his eyes off of him. "Oh," Smaug exhaled softly. He ran his fingers through Bilbo's hair.

Bilbo liked the idea of taking Smaug by surprise. It was such a rare thing, to see Smaug's eyes brighten and feel the rush of excitement through him. He was such a stoic creature, his dragon. He mouthed his hardening cock through his trousers before untying them with his teeth until it shot out of its confines, reddened and ready, and sank his mouth down on him. Smaug moaned as he was engulfed in warm, wet heat. 

Bilbo's hand slid up his hairless chest as he moved his mouth on his cock. "You want me to come in your pretty mouth?" Smaug asked breathlessly, because he was embarrassingly close already.

Bilbo let his cock fall from his lips with a pop and kissed his chest. "You know I do," he said before taking him back in his mouth again. Smaug moaned, and not long after Bilbo’s mouth found his cock again, he was coming down his throat.

Bilbo gagged a little bit, shocked by the amount of come that flooded into his mouth, and pulled away to swallow before Smaug could expand in his mouth. He stood up shakily and kissed him hard, letting him taste himself.

Smaug moaned into his mouth. "What do you need?"

Bilbo rubbed his groin against him and gripped his ass tightly. "I just need to come," he whispered against his lips, standing on his toes to reach him.

The rest of the afternoon they spent together, forgetting about lunch and not thinking of the time they were going to spend apart and the lies resting uncomfortably between them.


	5. Chapter 5

It was early the following morning when Bilbo left his cozy hobbit hole, leaving his sleeping lover behind and the ring snug in his pocket. Before his first adventure, he never would have dreamt of leaving Hobbiton alone. Now, the forest and its accepting silence comforted him as did his solitude. However, the farther his pony walked the more anxious he became. He felt like he would see a ghost lying there in the bed, one he had already said goodbye to. 

When Bilbo reached his destination, the dwarves did not seem surprised to see him. They greeted him warmly, their burglar. Bilbo lingered with them, afraid for the moment he would lay eyes on Thorin.

Eventually, Balin led Bilbo to Thorin's bedroom. The king was sitting up in bed, propped up with pillows, when they walked in and his old friend’s eyes lit up. His hands beckoned him closer. "I'm glad you came," he spoke warmly as the others respectfully stepped out of the room, sensing that the two lovers needed to be alone. They shut the door behind them.

Bilbo felt tears rising to his eyes right away despite every effort to hold them back, and he was frozen, standing far away from Thorin’s bedside like he was still shocked to see him alive. "Do not cry, my love," Thorin told him gently. "I am sorry you thought I died on that battlefield."

Bilbo did not bother to wipe his tears away. Taking a deep, raking breath, he walked closer to the bed while his heart swelling at the sight of him. Thorin was still so handsome, even weakened. "It wasn't fair. To keep me in the dark. They did not protect me," he said a bit angrily.

Thorin sighed heavily then like he agreed, but none of it had been his choice. "They were scared and they thought they were doing what I would have wanted," he tried to explain, reaching for the hobbit’s hand as soon as he was close enough. "I'm glad you came back to me."

Bilbo sniffed and wiped his face with his free hand while holding Thorin's in the other. I haven't come back to you, Bilbo wanted to say out loud, but the words didn't come. He was so happy to see him breathing that he could not bear to say it now. "How are you feeling?" he asked, walking even closer but not getting on the bed.

"I'm getting stronger every day," Thorin told him proudly. "I have missed you."

"And I missed... I missed you," stuttered Bilbo, and turned his eyes away from the dwarf. "I don't like seeing you like this."

"I'm sorry," Thorin told him gently. "I had the room next to mine made up for you." He did not tell him he would be staying in what used to be the Queen's suite.

Bilbo was tired from his journey but he did not want to leave his friend yet. Thorin’s hair was long and curled and soft. He could tell that he recently bathed and ate. His skin was starting to show a healthy glow as his health returned, but his touch was still cold. "I can only stay one night or so," he confessed.

Thorin did not seem bothered by that. "Then I will just have to convince you to stay longer,” he said simply. "This is your home now, too."

"Thank you, but Thorin, my home is in the Shire," Bilbo said hardheartedly, because he was not entirely sure that was the truth anymore. He didn’t know where his home was anymore. He thought of Smaug and his heart ached for him. To change the subject, he sat on the edge of the bed and looked over his friend. "You look like you should eat."

Before Bilbo could stop him, Thorin pulled him closer so he was straddling his lap. "I don't want to eat. I want you," he said before kissing him deeply.

It surprised Bilbo. He supposed that a part of him wanted to be in Thorin's arms, to feel his legs around his waist and his lips on his. Perhaps one never truly gets over their first love. But he pulled his mouth away from Thorin, ending the kiss, and delicately moved out of his lap. "Thorin, stop. I am seeing you for the first time since I thought you were dead," he tried to find an excuse.

"What better way to reconnect?" Thorin asked lightly, but it was clear he was beginning to lose hope nothing had changed while he had slept. 

Bilbo looked away. "Thorin, I thought you were dead. No, I... I knew you were dead. I moved on because I had to," he tried, but he hadn't wanted to discuss this so soon after seeing Thorin. He wasn't ready for this.

"Moved on? You have another lover?"

Bilbo blushed bright red, answering his question without words. "That- that doesn't matter, Thorin," he stammered. "Don't make this difficult. Listen, I am here to see you and take care of you. Please… just rest."

"I want you to take care of me this way." Thorin told him as he unbuttoned Bilbo’s shirt.

Bilbo took Thorin's hands in both of his to stop him. "I've missed you, my dear friend, but I cannot stay forever," he whispered to his sleepy companion.

For a while, Thorin looked up at Bilbo like he already knew it was over. "Of course you can," he spoke in a whisper. "I want to marry you."

Bilbo lifted his head and looked down at Thorin like he couldn't believe he had said it. The stubborn king always did have a way of making things complicated. "Thorin... no," he shook his head and tried not to scoff at the idea. He knew how easily Thorin’s pride was hurt.

"Why not?" Thorin asked right away, sounding offended.

"I cannot marry you. I am a hobbit and I belong in the Shire," was his easy excuse. Sympathetically, his hand reached out to touch Thorin's face, though his heart was not in it. How wrong it was. He didn’t belong to the Shire… he belonged to a certain grumpy dragon living inside of it. His heart was already owned by something else. 

"You belong with me," Thorin argued, "and the Shire has to be too boring for you now."

Bilbo narrowed his eyes down at the dwarf, finally getting angry. Thorin did always know how to test his patience. "You think I am just going to leave my home to be your... your wife?" he accused bitterly. "Because that is what I would be. Your whore. There is nothing for me here." His words were sharp and he regretted them immediately. He did not want to hurt Thorin. He wanted him to be whole and happy. But he could not give him this, not anymore. Not after all that had happened and not after Smaug.

"You would be my consort, not my whore," Thorin protested weakly. "You told me you had no family... you could still visit the Shire as often as you wanted."

"Thorin, I am telling you no," Bilbo said sadly. He sat up and dusted himself off. "It was wonderful to see you. I am incredibly glad that you are not dead. I almost didn't survive the loss of you. But I... I did, and now I cannot go back. I want to be your friend, but I cannot be your husband…"

"I am a king, you will not find better," Thorin told him spitefully, as though he knew what he was saying wasn’t fair.

"It's not about finding someone better," Bilbo told him honestly with a sigh and a roll of his eyes. He supposed the near death experience had not humbled his dear friend. He slipped on his jacket, feeling the draw of the ring in its pocket. "It is about what my heart says. Please don't push me."

"You will change your mind," Thorin promised him.

Bilbo bit back another wave of tears. "You are being... unreasonable. I came here to see you and help you heal, but if all you are going to do is argue with me, I am leaving this instant," he threatened, though his heart was sad and no longer angry.

"I'm sorry," Thorin said quickly. He instantly softened at the thought of Bilbo departing like this. "Don't leave...I need you here. Even if it’s just for a little while."

Bilbo stopped, slowly turning around to Thorin. It was a moment before he decided to speak again. "Can you walk yet?" he asked.

"Yes," Thorin told him as he got out of bed slowly but surely.

Bilbo rushed to help Thorin, despite his own aching body, to help the stubborn dwarf stand. "Be careful," he chastised. Thorin braced himself against the smaller hobbit and smiled apologetically. The smile turned into a grin when he watched his friend smile back.

“You are the most hard-headed dwarf I know,” Bilbo rolled his eyes.

***

A week passed, and Bilbo was beginning to believe that Thorin had sabotaged his plans to get home. The night he arrived, his pony had mysteriously gone missing or ran away. Thorin had only shrugged and suggested that it was a sign to stay longer. And so Bilbo did. He fed him and bathed him and helped his weak legs strengthen. He tended to his wounds when the dwarf maids would allow him and he soothed him when the pain was too much. On the fifth and sixth day, he read him the most recent draft of his book, watching Thorin’s expression closely. There was no mention of their sexual relationship. And yet at the end, Thorin wept and simply had no words for him, though his eyes showed adoration and pride. Now, a week later, and Bilbo was ready to go home.

Balin interrupted Thorin and Bilbo’s dinner one night. "Sorry to interrupt, but Bilbo has a guest."

Bilbo's eyes shot up from his food right away and landed on Thorin's and he looked away quickly, not wanting his friend to see the fear on his face. "Who is it?" he asked without getting up.

"He says he is a hobbit but he doesn't look like any hobbit I've ever seen. He says his name is Sam."

Bilbo almost choked on his food and stood up quickly, the chair he had been sitting on making a horrible noise that had him wincing as it slid heavily across the wood floor. "Thank you," he said to Balin quickly, trying not to appear as though he were panicking. 

It couldn't be him, and yet, Bilbo sensed him on the other side of the door. He felt his presence like heat. He took a deep breath and opened it only a crack. "Sm- I mean... Sam," he said awkwardly, though he knew they were alone. For now. "What are you doing here?"

Smaug looked him over from where he stood. "I was worried so I tracked you here."

Bilbo still only held the door open a few inches. "My pony ran away," he told him, and it was the truth. "You can't be here."

Smaug pushed the door open and strutted into the dining room like he owned it. "Nonsense, introduce me to your dwarf."

What did Smaug intend to do? Was he going to reveal himself to them and burn down the city? The idea of Smaug being in the room with the dwarf that now owned his gold made him panic. "Sma- Sam, stop. He's not my dwarf, and you cannot be here!" Bilbo ran after him, grabbing him by his arm.

Smaug pulled away from him sharply. "Do not say such things when I can smell him all over you," he hissed.

Bilbo felt his eyes well up with tears at the thought of Smaug doing something rash to the dwarves. It would be his fault. "You cannot be here," he repeated, shaking his head and reaching out for Smaug one more time.

Thorin walked heavily on his cane into the room and stared at Smaug. "Who are you?" he asked rudely.

"I am Bilbo’s lover," Smaug said bluntly.

Bilbo got in between Smaug and Thorin right away like he was ready to break up a fight, but Thorin only looked highly amused. "I see. He did mention something briefly about having one, but that didn't stop him from staying with me."

Bilbo opened his mouth to gasp. "Well of course. You are a king," Smaug said charmingly. "I can't fault him for lying with you when you are so handsome as well."

Bilbo panicked even more and pushed quite forcibly on his dragon’s chest. "Sam, I will never forgive you if you do anything to him," he warned, even though he knew he had no right to be upset with Smaug for anything. “And for goodness sakes, I didn’t lie with him!”

"I'm not here to hurt anyone," Smaug said, spreading his arms in a mocking gesture of surrender. "I brought no weapons."

Bilbo knew that Smaug's mind and his body was the only weapon he would ever need. His hands clenched on the fabric of Smaug's shirt. "Please, just take me home," he begged.

"But darling, I just got here," Smaug said prying his hands off of him. But Bilbo wouldn't give up. He wouldn't move from his place between Thorin and Smaug and tightened his grip on his lover. 

"I had him first, you know," Thorin told the stranger.

"Oh, is that why he was so surprised by what real love making should feel like?" Smaug shot back.

Thorin stared at Bilbo then, shocked and looking to him for answers. Bilbo looked shyly at Thorin. "Don't listen to him, Thorin, he has every right to be upset with me but not at you. I told him I would not be gone long and I lied about where I was going…"

Thorin shook his head. "In any case it is too late for either of you to be traveling. You should stay the night at least." Thorn said willing to pretend Smaug didn't just call him out on his love making skills.

Bilbo turned around to face Thorin angrily. "Thorin, don't make the situation worse!"

"I am just being hospitable." Thorin shrugged.

Bilbo pushed away from the two men and walked away so he could breathe. "I'm not staying here any longer, playing whatever game you two are playing. I am going back to the Shire," he insisted angrily. “I will walk if I must.”

Smaug growled. It was a noise that did not sound human at all. "Fine. Let's go."

Bilbo stormed towards the door, tears in his eyes, when he heard Thorin say, "What are you?"

Bilbo froze where he was, tremoring with fear and terrified to turn around to show that terror to Thorin. "I'm your worst nightmare if you go near him again with intent to take him from me," He heard Smaug threaten. Bilbo braced himself for the worst and was clearly surprised to see Smaug pass him on his way outside and towards the forest.

Bilbo rushed after him, giving one last apologetic look at Thorin, and surprised to see him smiling. "You have no right to be angry with me," Smaug mumbled when they were far enough away.

"I want to be alone. Stay here if you want. I don't care," Bilbo hissed back at him and continued to storm off, not caring that it was by foot and he had no food or drink.

Smaug jerked him back to face him. "You lied to me to go fuck your ex-lover. I should let you go by yourself out in those woods but for some reason I still care about you so get off your high horse and stop being an idiot!"

Bilbo didn't know what came over him when he jerked back away from Smaug to scream at him, "Just leave me!"

"No!" Smaug screamed right back. "You are mine!"

Bilbo broke down crying, collapsing onto the ground and wishing it would bury him alive.

Smaug growled and paced hastily back and forth in front of Bilbo, not knowing what to do. "We didn’t fuck!” he shouted through tears. “I told him I met someone else. I don’t regret seeing him and staying with him… I needed to know for sure if there was anything left. I’m sorry I lied to you but I was afraid of what you would do if you knew…I am afraid of who you are inside." He spoke up to the evening sky as if he were talking to it and not to Smaug.

Smaug stopped his frantic pacing. "I hope it was worth it then."

"You know it wasn't," Bilbo turned to snarl at him.

"Then why risk it?" Smaug asked him. "I may never want to trust you again."

"Because I had missed him," Bilbo said honestly, tears welling up in his eyes again from Smaug's words that he knew he deserved. "And I was afraid of losing you, too."

"Who else will you not be able to say no to?"

"Thorin isn't just anyone, Smaug!" Bilbo shouted at him, defending his honor especially because he felt he didn't have any.

"Then if he is so special, why don't you just stay with him?" Smaug accused.

"I don't want him. Being near him once again made me realize how much I don't want him and how much I am in love with you," he admitted shamelessly, his shoulders slumped like he was ready to just curl up and die.

"Don't you dare tell me that now," Smaug hissed. "Get up. We need to get far away from this place."

"I'd rather you just leave me if you will never forgive me," Bilbo stood up to demand of his lover.

"I will forgive you, but not this night.”

That made Bilbo feel less like he were in a pit of despair and he walked closer to Smaug. "We can't make it back by foot," he said softly, not wanting to admit that Thorin had been right. They needed to stay another night.

"No, we can't," Smaug agreed just as he began stripping out of his clothes. "How do you think I got here so fast?"

Bilbo grew nervous when Smaug began to undress right there in the forest. He looked around them nervously. "What... what are you doing?"

"I can change," Smaug said, not looking at Bilbo. "I can't get really large yet but I can be about the size of a horse."

Bilbo just stared, his lips parted, terrified.

Smaug paused when he noticed Bilbo's fear. His stance softened when he saw how frightened he was. "Do you not want me to?"

Bilbo shyly looked away. He was afraid of what Smaug would shift into and that he would not be the same soul inside. "Do what you wish," he muttered to the ground. Smaug looked at him oddly before he allowed his self to change. 

It was a painful but not unpleasant sort of feeling, the shedding of one’s skin to transform into another form of oneself. He expanded and stretched and felt himself come alive. His heart pumped faster and the fire burned in the pit of his belly. When he opened his eyes, it was to view a different, more vibrant and magical world around him. Light danced across Bilbo’s golden hair as he stared down in fear at his own feet. Boldly, he used a large, fanged claw to lift Bilbo’s face to look at him. 

When Bilbo’s awestruck gaze landed on his, Smaug shook his reptilian head and wings gallantly. The leaves on the trees around him responded with a gentle wave back to him majestically. Bilbo blinked as his own hair gently brushed back from the current.

"Hop on." Smaug’s voice, though as gentle as it could be, was still thicker, heavier, and deeper. It sent a chill through Bilbo’s small body. "Do not be afraid. I would never harm you. Even in this form, I am still myself."

Bilbo took a deep breath and walked slowly up to Smaug in his dragon form. Even a fraction of his full size, he was still intimidating. He hesitantly reached his hand out shyly to touch Smaug's face, looking at him in awe. His scales were tough like armor and warm to the touch. His nostrils flared and he sank his massive head lower so Bilbo could reach him. "You are beautiful," the hobbit whispered. Smaug preened under the attention, almost smiling as he closed his eyes and purred against Bilbo’s hand. 

Bilbo, his eyes still wet, couldn't hold back a giddy smile as he stepped even closer and continued to pet his thick scales, still in utter awe of the shifter. His mate was a gentle beast, with pride so easily damaged and with loyalty that rivaled the dwarves themselves. He loved him. 

Bilbo's hands travelled to Smaug's sensitive wings, still fascinated and more than a little bit intimidated. His hands trailed over the reptilian flesh and laughed when Smaug stretched out his wing halfway and purred like a kitten. He wondered if his shapeshifter lover had ever been touched with love and affection while in this form or revered only with terror. 

Showing off, Smaug outstretched both wings at full mast and the wind actually knocked Bilbo onto his rump. "You are perfect," he told him with another laugh, standing back up on his feet and walking over to lay his forehead against Smaug's, though he was still shaking.

Smaug closed his eyes and leaned into Bilbo. "We should go," he told his lover.

"I'm sorry," Bilbo told him suddenly, "I don't deserve someone as magnificent as you."

"We all make mistakes. I had no right to judge you." Smaug licked his face.

Bilbo was startled by the dragon's kiss, but he wiped his cheek and nodded. He walked to his lover's side and stared at his shoulders. "How..." he couldn't find the words to ask.

"Just climb on and try to find a comfortable place to sit. It’s okay," Smaug coaxed him.

His lover's sheer power between his legs when he slid onto his back and straddled him was terrifying. He wrapped his arms around his neck and held on as if for dear life. "You won't let me fall off?" he asked out of fear.

"If you fall I will catch you," Smaug said simply, and with a powerful thrust of his wings, they took off into the air.

Bilbo closed his eyes and shuttered when he felt them uproot from the ground, but when he felt Smaug even out and begin to fly steadily, he opened them and was once again in awe. He understood then why Smaug enjoyed his dragon form so much - flying was exhilarating. His grip on him lessened as he relaxed and he watched the tips of the trees pass them by and felt like he could touch the clouds.

Bilbo woke when he felt Smaug's talons hit earth and he lifted himself from his scaly hide. He lingered on top of him before finally sliding down off of him and holding out his hand to his lover, knowing that he had to change back into his semi-hobbit form. They were within walking distance from the Shire.

Smaug shifted less painfully back to the form Bilbo was used to, though this time, two small horns protruded from his mess of black hair and his eyes did not fade from fire to ice. He smiled at his lover and took his hand. “Let’s go home.”


End file.
